Hi ladies,

OK, Quiver has me thinking. What are some of the great frugal ideas you have come up with in your homeschooling? Making do, making it work, making it cheap?

Let's share!
Christine

I have found that high-schoolers and college kids need money and will gladly give music/horseriding/basketweaving lessons at a reduced rate!

A home garden can be botany & a study in the virtue of patience!

Enlist your children in helping plan and cook the menu. They will learn basic nutrition and budgeting and will be much more open to eating that broccoli casserole if THEY had a hand in creating it!

As I posted in another thread, we try not to write in workbooks but write the answers in notebooks, saving the workbooks for the next child.

I do a lot of swapping/borrowing

I think do I really need the teacher's manual for 1st grade science or would it be wiser to buy the teacher's book for Algebra 2? (no brainer here)

Here are some sites off the top of my head that we frequent:

http://www.bbnradio.org
http://www.cbhministries.org
http://www.answersingenesis.org
http://www.icr.org
http://www.nasa.gov

http://www.starfall.com

Love it, love it!
Let's keep sharing!

Christine

My son just gave me a wonderful source for online books!!!!
http://www.books.google.com
It looks like you can download a book in a pdf format. I'm wondering if this can be printed out??? This is a Beta so the kinks still have to be worked out...

This message has been edited. Last edited by: quiverofeight,

Hi Quiver,
It looks like those are excerpts only, or am I reading it incorrectly?
Do you spend a fortune on printer ink like I do? Man, cartridges are pricey. How can we save on these?
Bless you,
Christine

quote:

Originally posted by christinefield:
Hi Quiver,
It looks like those are excerpts only, or am I reading it incorrectly?
Do you spend a fortune on printer ink like I do? Man, cartridges are pricey. How can we save on these?
Bless you,
Christine

Hummm... I'll have to get back to you on that.

I don't really print off a lot of stuff right now because of the expense.

Hi

I would not consider myself to be an ultra frugal person. I so enjoyed Miserly Moms because of this. And I agree with Jonni that a place that we can save a huge amount is in the food department. The catch to that though is that it takes time. And time is a precious comodity to us HS moms!!

I cook from scratch, do not waste, use left overs etc. But I still like my treats every now and again. One of the biggest savings we make is in packing my dh's lunch for work. I make slightly more at our evening meal and before I serve dinner I serve a portion for him into a lunch box and put it in the fridge.

This also saves time in the a.m. as I do not have to make sandwiches and is healthy for him to eat.

My Husband has lowered our cell phone minutes and it will save us around 40 a month. THAT'S ABOUT 500 DOLLARS A YEAR!!!! sorry for yelling, I'm just excited about that.
We are cell phones only and the In-Laws are on this plan with us, (that make six phones) but Husband was still able to cut down on minutes. *Sigh* He's such a great guy...

Hi Wendy,
Welcome to the board! We hope you check back often!
Quiver, I am soooo confused about cell phone plans. I have one with a plan and my two teens have pay-as-you go plans, but it seems like we're spending too much. PLUS we have the house phone to pay too.
Is it cheaper to go all cell? If you do, then how do you get on the Internet? (Our DSL is through the phone line.)
Clueless,
Christine

Christine,
I can certainly relate to the cell phone plan confusion! We went with a National coverage plan that has phone to phone free minutes, (Sprint) since Husband travels so much. He could be calling from North Carolina and it would still be a local call to me in Arkansas!

For us, it just doesn't make sense to keep the house phone. Husband has his phone, I have one, Oldest has one, Inlaws both have one, and we have a "floater" that goes with whichever child has an outside activity. There is always a phone at home when someone is at home.

We get our Broadband internet from Cox Cable but we don't get cable TV. They are separate services so one is not needed to get the other. Broadband cable is faster than DSL and for us was about the same price.

It was pouring rain the other day and we were getting cabin fever. I decided to cook some Aldi popcorn but all I had was the microwave variety. (our microwave is toast) My children actually didn't believe you could cook popcorn without a microwave!!!!

I grabbed a pair of scissors, cut open the microwave bag of popcorn, dumped it into a pan and popped that corn the "old fashioned way" in a pan with a glass lid! LOL!

The children were amazed that popcorn would pop on top of the stove! I was amazed I didn't burn anything. The loved watching the corn pop through the glass lid.

Then we had a popcorn tossing contest. THAT was a HOOT!! They wanted to see who could catch the most in their mouth at once, who could throw the highest and still catch. They teamed up and saw which team could throw to each other and still catch... It was loads of fun and sure made a rainy day pass AND it was inexpensive!!

Quiver,
Love the popcorn idea!
Hey, with Christmas coming, have you ever strung air popped popcorn? It's fun and makes a lovely decoration - then you put it outside for the animals.
Oooooooh - can't wait to start sharing Christmas ideas!
Christine

quote:

Originally posted by christinefield:
Hey, with Christmas coming, have you ever strung air popped popcorn?
Christine

Yes, and it took several tries and an exasperated call to mother before I realized it had to be AIR POPPED! Those kernals kept falling apart everytime a needle came near them. But ditching the oil did the trick. I guess I'd be tough as shoe leather too if I didn't have a lick of moisture left in me! lol!!
We haven't done it in years though... I wonder if they make a mircowave variety for that?

Here's another thing we do....
If you have a community theatre, you can attend an "open rehersal" for free. Open rehearsals are Dress Rehearsals that are open to the public. You don't have to worry so much about being quiet and still as you would in a real performance. PLUS IT'S FREE!!!!!!! How's that for frugal?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: quiverofeight,

We like to go to a local private school's football games but the ticket price for our large family can be prohibitive. We always wait until the second quarter when they close the box office but leave the gate open for situtations such as our family's. We get in to see the majority of the game and even the halftime show by the band - all for free! I'm very grateful to Shiloh for being so generous. I wish they could contine this practice during the play-offs! They have made the play-offs almost every year for the past 10 years. they are a great team.)

I have never shopped at the Salvation Army store or Goodwill, but my husband was in desperate need of smaller pants, (he's recently lost 50lbs!), for his trip today. I just didn't have the money in the budget for new clothes. Husband decided to just look at the Goodwill store...
He came home with three pairs of nice trousers for a total expense of $3.25!!! The pants look new and actually fit him! I think I'll go over there and see what they have...

My husband buys almost all of his clothes from the thrift shop. We have one here that's run by hospital volunteers (I'm assuming the profits go back into the hospital in some way). He goes by there almost every week and finds Dockers, shirts, sometimes jeans, and averages about $2 per outfit. Now my problem is convincing him that he doesn't have to buy ALL the clothes they have in his size. Our closet overfloweth!!

We eat lots of bread; around 12 loaves a week. I go to the bread store on Wednesday and I can get fresh, 100% whole wheat, or high fiber, reduced calorie bread for about $.50 a loaf. On weeks when I forget to buy on Wed., we eat sandwiches on tortillas.
We do like to bake bread but the the bulk of our bread comes from Wed. shopping at the bread store. Wed. is when they get their deliveries so it's more fresh and I store the bread in the freezer.
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This message has been edited. Last edited by: quiverofeight,

I read your popcorn posts (above) and wanted to tell you, you can save a bundle on popcorn by buying an air popper and then buying the bags of seeds! That way, the kids get to see it popping, and have that great experience, and you can put as much salt and butter on it (or whatever else tickles your fancy) as you want.

Investing in a popper means only paying 1/3-1/4 of the cost of popcorn. Little bits add up!



Bekah C
Wife of 1, Owner of 2, Daughter of 3 & Mom to 4

Hey Bekah,
Long time no hear! Thanks for the popcorn tip. Anyone ever pop in a paper bag?

Christine

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